Identification and formulation mission of the sector policy support programme “ Modernization of the secondary education sector in Tunisia » and support to the elaboration of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework of the VET sector”

Detailed description of project Back

Human capital is the main resource for Tunisia and its strongest asset for a steady and sustainable growth. Consequently, development plans shows coherent medium term strategies for the reform and modernization of the education and vocational systems, based on labour market requirements and work demand.

During the period of the 10^th Plan of economic and social development (2002-2006), due to demographic factors, secondary education will undergo a strong growth in effectives. This growth will be a real challenge for the secondary education sector not only in term of infrastructure capacity, but also in term of quality. Furthermore, this growth will have inevitable repercussion on the labour market and on higher education system. It is thus indispensable that the secondary education system be able to give the students the knowledge and tools which will enable them to easily penetrate the labour market and to guide them on the right path.

The overall objective of the EC-supported programme aims at supporting the efforts of the Tunisian government to enhance both internal and external efficacy, efficiency and equity of the secondary and vocational education systems in order to improve the quality of the human resources in Tunisia and give them a better ability to face social, political and economic changes.

The specific objectives of the secondary education system reform are defined by the Tunisian authorities, as follows:

• Basic learning is improved;
• News subjects are proposed to the students, mostly in new technologies;
• Guidance and information systems are improved;
• Arts and cultural activities are developed.

In this context, Tunisia also started in 1996 a reform process of its vocational education and training system, in coordination with an enhancement programme of the private firm sector in order to improve its competitiveness. This reform is supported by the European Commission and other donor agencies.

The strategy of the reform is based on the identification of training needs by private firms, and on its capacity to transform this demand into training programme. The objective is to steer the vocational education through economic needs in qualifications and to create a link between vocational training and the productive sector. This approach also aims at involving all economic and social actors into the steering of the system.

Type of services provided

The identification mission defined a proposal of sector policy support programme for the secondary education in Tunisia.

Once the proposal approved by the Commission, the experts carried out a formulation mission of the sector policy support programme. The formulation stage enabled the experts to validate and fine-tuned their analysis, define the modes of implementation and draft the Technical and Administrative Provisions.

These missions are carried out by a team of 3 experts, provided by PROMAN:

• 1 expert in management and organization of secondary education;
• 1 teaching specialist with excellent knowledge of education sociology;
• 1 expert in macro-economics and public finance

The macro-economist also works on the identification and formulation of the sector policy support programme for the vocational education system upgrading.

Moreover, he will as well provide technical assistance – if requested – to the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training for the elaboration of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework of both secondary education and vocational education sub-sectors.

PROMAN ensures the backstopping of these missions and the quality control of all reports.